KEY POINTS OF ECOPSYCHOLOGY
By
Audette Sophia
With some key points and tangible actions or practices
related to each key
1.) We ARE Connected
“You didn’t come into this world. You came out of it, like a
wave from the ocean. You are not a stranger here.” –Alan Watts
“Only in reciprocity with what is Other do we begin to heal ourselves.”
-David Abram
One of the features of the modern industrialized
world-view is that it teaches people to see and think in separated isolated
terms, that is to see each thing as an isolated thing, not a part of a whole
web of relationships. This is the perspective that has us treat disease without
changing the lifestyle or habit that caused the disease, and seeks only bandaid
solutions to environmental problems.
It is a difficult campaign to get people who don’t feel very connected
to the Earth to change the many enculturated habits and behaviors that harm
the earth. But if the person could not just see but really feel their connection,
then changes of behavior would result naturally.
Disconnected from our source of food and water, and boxed away from the land
that is supporting us, it is common for modern people to not experience or understand
the impacts of their lifestyle. The fact is whether or not we acknowledge it
or not, we are totally interconnected with a web of elemental, plant, animal,
and human communities.
We must train ourselves and our children to see
the invisible dotted lines that connect us to the water, soil, plants, farmers,
processing plants, chemicals, landfills, etc… Massive shift in our behavior
will occur if we can shift from seeing ourselves as isolated individuals and
families competing for commodities, and really experience ourselves as connected
and responsive to the web of relations.
This deep sense of connection is not often conveyed through words on a page,
but through direct experience. So, the best way to cultivate it is through getting
out into the garden, the parks, forests, and wilderness and spending time in
reflective receptivity.
Practices-
- Plant a garden!
- Go on a wilderness trip
- Spend solo time in nature
-Make the web of life visible- make art on the theme of connection
-Write about connection (or lack thereof) and share with others
- In Groups- give each person a part of the ecosystem to be, and have them connect
a string to the other parts they are dependent on, and soon see the whole room
is linked with string.
- Get together with people and talk about your love of the natural world, concerns,
fears, ideas and commitments.
2.) Environmental despair
“Confronted with widespread suffering and threats of global disaster,
responses of anguish- of fear, anger, grief, and even guilt- are normal. They
are a measure of our humanity.” –Joanna Macy
In the face of the environmental crisis, many people feel strong emotional responses,
and many try to deny, numb, and escape from these difficult feelings. The tendency
of western customs to judge and pathologize these feelings discourages us from
allowing and expressing our pain and using its energy for action.
“ Experts urge us to grieve not only because successful grief is beneficial,
but also because failure to grieve can have such far reaching consequences.”
–Phyllis Windle
“For repressed despair seeks scapegoats and turns, in anger, against
other members of society. It also turns inward in depression and self-destruction,
through drug abuse and suicide.” Joanna Macy
The concept (and reality) of environmental despair really offers a validation
for our intense emotions and a larger context than our own lives to justify
and contain these difficult feelings.
“…our apparent public apathy is but a fear of experiencing and
expressing this pain, and that once it is acknowledged and shared it opens the
way to power.” – Joanna Macy
We also realize that our connection to the environment can at times cause us
pain, it can also be a great source of power and connect us to resources well
beyond our own. If we are connected enough to feel pain for people and places
we don’t “know”, then through that same line of connection
we can receive comfort, support, and strength.
Practices-
- Truth mandala (from Coming back to Life, Joanna Macey)
- Grief rituals (Malidoma Somei)
-Writing the voice of our hopelessness fully. Then writing the voice of our
hope.
-Being honest with yourself and your friends about your concern and emotions
regarding the state of our world- communicating these feelings.
3.) Our negative treatment of the natural world is directly linked to the oppression of our inner (equivalent of) wilderness
“Just as industrial society has paved the earth with asphalt and concrete,
so too the ecological sensibilities of the psyche have been weighed down by
illusions of material progress and fascination with technological power.”
–Theodore Roszack
“ Domoniation of Nature involves domination of man. Each subject not only
has to take part in the subjugation of external nature, human and nonhuman,
but in order to do so must subjugate nature in himself.”
“The person who suppresses the animal side of his nature may become civilized,
but he does so at the expense of decreasing the motive power for spontaneity,
creativity, strong emotions, and deep insight.”
“the despoiling of the earth and the subjugation of women are intimately
connected. It is not a coincidence that when women are raped, the land becomes
parched and desolate, and when “feminine” qualities are oppressed,
the human mind is cut off from participation in mystery and left with a disenchanted
world. “ – Mary Gomes
Our inner ecology is intimately connected to the
earth’s ecology. What if rape and violence and cancer epidemics and chain
smoking have the same cause as stripmining, clearcutting, environmental toxins,
and pollution. Abuse of our own bodies and the body of the earth come from the
same internal values, wounds, and false beliefs. From this perspective, working
through our self-hate and unconscious habits is activism. Practices-
- Anything that gives permission and expression to the irrational, creative,
and Wild part of yourself.
- Paint with your hands or feet
- Dance with a blindfold on to strongly rhythmic music- dance the energies of
animals you connect with
- Write uncensored stream of consciousness
- play improvisational theater games and be characters very different from your
own
- Give yourself a whole day & night alone in your room with art supplies,
music, a journal, and permission to feel, cry, not know, and let
it all out.
- Go to wild parties and pagan festivals and dance hard.
4.)
Expansion of Identity
“Both nature and human are expressions of a common source, as two waves
are both expressions of a common ocean.” – John Davis
Treating the natural world with respect and care comes naturally
from the realization that it is actually our greater body. When our circle of
identification expands from our skin to include our human community, and even
more to include our non-human community, our sense of connection and responsibility
also expand. This may sound like a new or strange concept, but this is actually
a very ancient cross- cultural commonality of Indigenous peoples. For many peoples
the reference point of true health was how integrated and connected the individual
was with their relations.
This feeling of being an integral part of something
so much grander than ourselves is a source of great comfort and sense of meaning
and belonging. If we decide to devote our life force energy to the health and
evolution of our Mother Earth, it gives a profound sense of purpose to our lives.
One of the biggest reasons this is not a common vantage point in this time is
that feeling connected to the Earth with all the destruction can be very painful,
and numbness and disconnection are much more condusive to personal comfort and
convenience. But I think that pain is a small price to pay for connection, meaning,
belonging, aliveness, and the power of countless resources and allies. Intellectual
philosophy set aside, interrelatedness and belonging to the greater whole of
this planet is really just an essential fact of our existence. But the choice
remains with us to identify as an individual or to integrate this truth into
our fundamental sense of who we are.
Practices-
An art project
- do a small self portrait and put it on a big canvas, and fill the rest of
the space with pictures, images and symbols of what we are connected to (family,
fav.animals, hobbies, goals, spiritual…) Create some kind of thread to
show these connections. Keep this art piece around to remind you that your not
alone, but part of a web of relations.
- Just spend a good chunk of time alone in nature without talking. Notice how
your sense of yourself is different than at home or work.
- When you are called upon to do something daunting (like speak in front of
lot’s of people) ask the Earth to support you, and really feel your connection
through your feet into the huge solid Earth and let your sense of yourself and
your resources available include this force.
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